Kearney and Rory Best are the only survivors from Ireland’s 2009 Grand Slam triumph. Head coach Joe Schmidt will want his in-form full-back available to face an England side unbeaten at Twickenham since Eddie Jones took the helm in December 2015.

Murphy maintained that prop Cian Healy is fit after a neck problem picked up in Saturday’s Scotland victory, with Ireland rejecting any notion of the front-rower suffering a head injury.

“He’s fully fit, he trained fully,” said Murphy, reiterating Ireland’s stance that looshead prop Healy had not suffered a head injury at the weekend.

“He was assessed by our medics on the field on Saturday: he was coherent, and he just had a stinger problem.”

British and Irish Lions fly-half Sexton missed 10 points with the boot in Ireland’s 37-27 win over Wales in Dublin on February 24, picking up that gluteal issue in the victory over Warren Gatland’s men.

Sexton edged back towards top form in Ireland’s four-try win over Scotland however, and Murphy hailed the 32-year-old as “incredible” for gritting his teeth through his recent injury.

“Johnny trained fully this morning and he’s fine,” said Murphy, of Sexton.

“We were managing him a little bit last week but he’s come through that process.

“He had a little bit of a glute issue. It was slightly restricted, in the previous week. By Saturday he was pretty okay, in relation to what he was carrying.

“But he’s been incredible in camp this time around. He always has been, but he’s really driven the lads hard, and worked with a lot of the young players, and taken a leadership role that we always knew he was good at.”

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